Houston's offensive scheme requires discipline to defend

FOXBORO -- Two weeks ago, an inability to maintain discipline when defending Cam Newton cost the Patriots a winnable game at Carolina. Discipline on defense could play a pivotal role as the Patriots defend the Case Keenum-led Houston Texans on Sunday

FOXBORO -- Two weeks ago, an inability to maintain discipline when defending Cam Newton cost the Patriots a winnable game at Carolina. Discipline on defense could play a pivotal role as the Patriots defend the Case Keenum-led Houston Texans on Sunday.

Now, Keenum is no Newton. There are few quarterbacks like Newton in the NFL.

But the way the Houston Texans operate under Gary Kubiak and offensive coordinator Rick Dennison presents similar challenges to what the Patriots faced against Newton. Houston likes to move its offensive line around once the ball is snapped, stretching the field wide in a zone-blocking scheme reminiscent of what the Denver Broncos ran for so many years under Mike Shanahan and his then-offensive coordinator -- Kubiak.

Rather than moving only north-south -- either pushing forward or retreating backward -- the Texans' offensive linemen frequently more laterally. The entire pocket can shift side to side, expanding the amount of ground the defense has to cover.

Depending on the play, Keenum either can move with the pocket or he can counter that movement with a bootleg, a maneuver that can exploit an undisciplined defense.

"He can get out of the pocket and move the pocket around," New England cornerback Aqib Talib said. "He's got a strong arm. He can make a ton of throws across his body, across the field."

And if the Patriots let Keenum get free, the work for the secondary only gets more difficult. Letting Keenum stand around by himself with Andre Johnson running down the field is asking for trouble.

"It extends plays," Talib said. "Guys get uncovered. A hitch turns into a fade. Fades turn into hitches. It just gives a whole other aspect to the offense."

What that often means is that a defense like New England devote one player -- a linebacker or a defensive back -- to accounting for a bootleg by the quarterback. If the quarterback hands the ball off or stays with the pocket as it shifts, that defender has effectively been eliminated as a factor in the play. He can't take off after a ball-carrier who he otherwise might try to chase down from behind.

"Even if you bring an eighth guy into the box, so to speak, against seven, that eighth guy has to take the quarterback," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. "If the eighth guy takes the quarterback, then you don't have him to chase those plays down from the backside. That's how they keep you honest.

"In their offense, somebody has to handle their quarterback on the boot or you let him stand out there by himself and throw. That's not a good situation, so he accounts for the extra guy you could potentially bring down into the front. It forces you to play seven-on-seven or six-on-six or however the formation is displaced."

Even if one player is assigned to spy the quarterback, the entire defensive scheme blows up if a defender or two fails to stay disciplined. Gap assignments must be maintained even if the gaps are moving. The quarterback spy can't be caught chasing a back who he thinks has the ball.

"They've made plenty of big plays where the backside guy has tried to chase the run down but it's the pass and the quarterback -- whether it's [Matt] Schaub or [Case] Keenum or [T.J.] Yates or whoever it is -- is standing out there with nobody pressuring him," Belichick said. "He has all day to throw, and he's looking at receivers 20, 30 yards downfield. That's not a good place to be defensively."

Two weeks ago against Carolina, Newton broke off three deflating third-down runs when a New England defender or two drifted out of position. Linebacker Dont'a Hightower seemed to lose his gap assignment on two of those plays, including a key third-and-6 snap in the fourth quarter that led to the go-ahead touchdown.

After a first half in which Denver's Knowshon Moreno ran circles around the New England defense last Sunday night, Dane Fletcher took over for Fletcher after halftime. Belichick never explains his personnel decisions, but Hightower hasn't been on the Patriots' injury report all week. Hightower didn't leave the game because he was hurt. He was removed because he wasn't getting the job done.

Fletcher could play a prominent role on Sunday against Houston. But it'll take all 11 defenders staying disciplined to rein in Keenum, a youngster who threw seven touchdown passes without an interception in his first three games but has stumbled in his last two.